The body-worn cameras being used from Friday morning by hundreds of gardaí in Dublin have the capacity to capture video and audio, even when they have not been turned on.
From the second they are activated by gardaí on duty, each camera has the capacity to save footage and sound from the previous 30 seconds.
It means if an incident flares up without warning, the events that unfolded just before the Garda member turned on their camera will be stored and can be used in evidence in future court cases.
Frontline Garda members based in Pearse Street, Store Street and Kevin Street in central Dublin began using the cameras on Friday morning. Henry Street Garda station in Limerick and Waterford City station will follow in coming months and when those stations are brought online a total of 700 cameras will be in operation.
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Some 150 Garda members based in Dublin have already completed training, with another 200 to follow in the next fortnight. Docking stations have been installed and are fully operational in the three Dublin stations. These download any footage recorded by a Garda member on the beat, while also charging the devices for the next garda to use.
As part of the downloading process, the footage recorded on the cameras is securely stored on the cloud and is automatically deleted after 30 days if not required for a prosecution. The videos are not retained on the devices once they have been plugged into a docking station and footage transferred to the cloud.
Each camera has 64GB of hard drive, allowing for 16 hours of continuous recording if required, with time stamps and locations of recordings, including multiple locations if gardaí are mobile during an incident. The cameras will also vibrate every minute when recording to remind gardaí they are turned on.
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In time, the system can be amended to ensure CCTV, drone footage, and videos recorded by members of the public, can also be added. While artificial intelligence or facial recognition technology will not be used over the next 12 months, as the system is fully tested in a live environment, that technology will likely be used to process footage in time, subject to legislative amendments.
The roll out of the cameras is facilitated by legislation already enacted and all of the technical infrastructure, including storage space for huge volumes of footage, required for the new system. The legislation required - the Garda Síochána Recording Devices Act - has been in place since last December.
It means though the use of the cameras in Dublin - and later in Limerick and Waterford - is a proof of concept project towards a national roll-out in about 12 months, body-worn cameras are now fully operational in the three main Dublin stations. They can, and will, be used immediately to ground criminal charges against suspects.
In the current climate, with hate-based aggression a major concern for the Garda, the cameras will be seen as a significant tool in the fight against far right agitators. They will, for example, be crucial in capturing threatening or abusive behaviour and also, in the future, hate-based physical or verbal offences.
But the cameras should prove invaluable in dealing with all types of crime, including chaotic public disorder and even domestic violence situations.
They will also be used by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission when members of the public make complaints about gardaí and could prove members of the force acted inappropriately, from cases of minor rudeness to serious criminal matters.
The cameras are about about the same size, though heavier, as many mobile phones and are fixed via a locking mechanism to a reinforced plastic receiver sewn into the breast of a Garda jacket. They are overt and will display a red flashing light, or a live stream of what is being recorded, in order that members of the public know the devices are recording.
While gardaí must, under legislation, inform any member of the public a camera has been activated inside a private dwelling, there is not the same legal requirement for recording in public places. However, gardaí have been trained to inform a member of the public when a camera is being activated.
“We see them as a very important tool of the organisation, as a system of gathering objective evidence which will contribute to the investigation of crime while also vindicating the rights of individuals, including Garda personnel,” said Chief Supt Derek Smart, the lead officer on the project for Limerick.
However, he added while the cameras would bring a new “transparency” to the Garda’s dealings with suspects, and other members of the public, they were only a tool that would augment current policing skills. Added to that, the cameras should reduce complaints of police conduct as well as save time and money in preparing evidence for court cases and result in fewer challenges around arrests.
Chief Supt Smart said the decision to activate the cameras would be treated like any other policing power by individual Garda members. And the footage gathered would be treated to a standard that any evidence expected to be used in a court case.
While three camera-types - Axon, Reveal and Motorola - will be used for the next year, one supplier will secure the national contract for the Garda after the 12-month proof on concept period has expired.
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